American Girl

Tom Petty

Lyrics

Intro

Verse

DA Well, she was an American girl
GA ...Raised on promises
She couldn't help thinking that there
Was a little more to life, somewhere else

Pre-Chorus

(A) DG After all it was a great big world
Em With lots of places to run to
A Yeah, and if she had to die... trying she
(A)
Had one little promise she was gonna keep

Chorus

GA ...Oh yeah... alright
DBm ...Take it easy baby... make it last all night
GAD(with intro riff) ...She was... an American girl
Well, it was kinda cold that night
She was standing alone on her balcony
Yeah, she could hear the cars roll by
Out on 441, like waves crashin' on the beach
And for one desperate moment there
He crept back in her memory
God, it's so painful, something that's so close
Is still so far out of reach
Oh yeah, alright
Take it easy baby, make it last all night
She was... an American girl

Intro Riff / Chord

Here is how you play the distinctive D chord heard in the intro (and in between many of the verses). The trick here is to mute the B string with your index finger (which should be used to play the 7th fret on the G string).

If you want to simulate the bassline of the recorded version while playing this riff, try playing it like this. This is by no means required / essential, but can help emulate the buildup that occurs when the full band plays it. The trick is to emphasize/voice the string containing the bass note for each chord. Again, listen along for the strumming pattern.

Breakdown Riff

The riff for breakdown section near the end can be shown below. Note, you could technically play the chords for this section in place of the riff. After the final A in the breakdown, you continue to the D-riff as played into the intro.

The tab/riff for this section is shown above

Song Info

Tip Jar

Want to support Songnotes? If you would like to donate a dollar or few, that would make my day. I've spent over 1000+ hours building this site and transcribing these songs -- and happily make everything available freely. Visit my PayPal page if you'd like to toss something back my way.

1961

1960

1958

1957

About

My name is David Potsiadlo, and I created Songnotes to share my collection of guitar tabs, chords, and lyrics for my favorite songs.

Since I started playing guitar over 10 years ago, I've often been frustrated by the preponderance of mediocre and incomplete song tabs littered across the internet. To combat this, I started keeping my own collection of notes for each song I learn -- always taking the extra time to make sure accuracy and completeness are never compromised. Years later, my collection grew to the point where I knew I had to share it online with fellow aspiring musicians.

In December 2012, I began designing & developing a website that became Songnotes. Here, I share my personal collection of hand-crafted music notation with all those online. I hope you enjoy.